Making DC Feel Like Home Again
Dear Mr. Vogel,
Home is a word that conjures up a myriad of senses and feelings. Home is also a word that cannot be bound by one definition. A person can find home in smells, tangible objects, and a multitude of people and places. For me, home has always been Washington, DC, but until recently, DC never quite felt like home. Sure, my family lived there, but the city itself was not warm or welcoming. You didn’t strike up conversations with those around you, everyone is always in a rush, too busy to be bothered, too busy to connect. I could not name a quintessential “DC” place. Besides the four corners of my parents’ home, I did not feel a deep love and connection to my city. Sure, I was proud to be a native Washingtonian, I mean how many have you actually met before? But home is more than a location, it’s also a place filled with people with whom you share joy, sadness, hilarity, frustrations, and countless similar experiences, but all relating to the place where you live, that same shared geographic space.
Washington DC became that home for me on October 7, 2015 at 5:30 a.m. at the Lincoln Memorial. Having recently graduated from law school and moved back to DC from Baltimore, I wasn’t sure I would find a true community in DC. After all, Baltimore is “Charm City,” where you know the guy who owns the coffee shop around the corner, you stop and chat with your neighbors when you take your trash out, and people do actually walk down the street, smile, and wish you good morning. It’s a hometown city, and I missed it terribly.
On the other hand, DC is well known as a transient city. People come through DC in phases and shifts, and then leave again. Few are privileged enough to call this city home, and unfortunately, the small minority of those who do, take it for granted. I didn’t want to be one of those people anymore. I wanted to feel connected to DC, I wanted to know every quadrant of the city, all eight wards, and I hoped in the process, I would find community of like-minded people that would welcome me, support me, and share this same desire. Those people are November Project DC.
I could go on and on about the impact November Project has had on my life, the people of “NP,” the both mental and physical challenges of the workouts, the unmatched support and joy in every members’ success, however they define it, and the electric energy pulsing through the group even in the blackest mornings in the depths of January, but what this letter truly boils down to is the threat that our home will be taken away. The Lincoln Memorial is that home. Meridian Hill Park is that home. The city’s parks, green spaces, and playgrounds are literally just that, NP’s playground. I could not have possibly discovered all the wonder and beauty DC has to offer without these locations. Because of NP, I can now name hundreds of places that represent DC for me. Places that represent home. The one that stands out above the rest is the Lincoln Memorial. Sure, I’d been to the Lincoln Memorial before, but watching the sun rise behind the Washington Monument at the top of those storied steps, while your heart is literally beating out of your chest, is an experience not of this world. I fell immediately, hard, in love with NP, in love with my city, and in love with the Lincoln Memorial. The view Abe’s statue gets to take in every single morning here plasters a permanent smile on your face, inspires you to bring that same energy and hard work from the workout to the rest of the hours that follow, and most importantly, instills in you how incredibly lucky you are to be there, in that moment, experiencing such quiet, but powerful beauty.
Because of November Project, this whole city shines a little brighter for me, and that is because I have seen it at its absolute best — at 5:30 a.m. with people from all walks of life coming together, embracing, welcoming, and supporting each other, in a way I imagine Abraham Lincoln himself had envisioned Americans one day would. This world and this city specifically, need November Project. It needs a group of people who never question or hesitate to welcome someone different, who will greet strangers by saying “I’m glad you’re here,” and who will give every last ounce of themselves back to this city because they feel connected to it. By taking away the Lincoln Memorial stairs, you will be taking away that connection. You will take away that hallowed ground on which this group has built years’ worth of community through fitness.
It may be easy from the outside to say, why can’t you take the workout somewhere else? Surely, there is another space, but the truth is nothing could compare to Lincoln. It’s not only the inclusiveness of the physical space, but the spirit of inclusiveness that the monument was literally erected to honor that makes Lincoln the natural home for November Project. November Project is doing nothing more than honoring that same spirit by choosing the Lincoln Memorial as its home. Like the words inscribed on the inside of the Memorial, NP DC is “dedicated to the unfinished work” Lincoln “so nobly advanced.” I hope you will allow us the opportunity to continue spreading this message of inclusivity, positivity, and community through free fitness at our chosen locations, as I can most assuredly promise you they have been purposefully chosen. We all appreciate your thoughtful consideration in this regard, and hope NPS and NP DC can continue to work together in our shared love and deep respect for our city’s national parks.
Thank you,
Katie Gallagher